| While 3D hardware acceleration often
brings greatly enhanced levels of performance to CyberNet
Worlds, it also brings some annoying complications, due
to the enormous number of different 3D video cards out
there. Some video cards can have bugs that adversely
affect performance, cause bizarre rendering errors, or in
extreme cases cause CyberNet Worlds to crash or even the
entire PC to lock up, requiring a reboot. Each video card
also has many different possible software driver versions
that may be installed on a particular PC, and some
drivers may work better than others. The latest driver
available for your 3D video card has the best chance
of working well with CyberNet Worlds in Direct3D
and/or OpenGL modes. This is why we cannot stress enough
the importance of making sure you have the latest drivers
for your video card installed. The vast majority
of problems reported with CyberNet Worlds 3.2 are fixed
simply by updating the video driver!
Keep in mind that even
if you have a brand new PC, it may not have shipped to
you with the latest drivers installed.
Troubleshooting
If you are trying to run CyberNet Worlds in Direct3D or
OpenGL accelerated mode and are experiencing problems,
there are several things you can try:
- Update your
video driver - this simple procedure fixes
the vast majority of problems that people
experience. See details below.
- Try changing
your display depth to 16 bits - some video
cards (especially many older cards in the Voodoo
family) work better when your screen is set to 16
bit color (also known as "high color".)
To change your display depth, right click on the
Windows desktop, select Properties..., and
click on the Settings tab.
- Upgrade to the
latest version of DirectX - the latest
version (currently 8.1) is available at www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp.
Updating
your video driver
If you have a "name brand" computer such as a
Dell or Compaq, check their web site first for driver
updates. This is particularly important if you are using
a laptop. Drivers can be found under the
"Support" section of a PC vendor's web site.
You can also get updated
drivers directly from the video card manufacturer. If you
do not know what type of video card you have, the first
thing you should do is run the DxDiag utility to
find out what kind of card you have and to determine if
your card supports 3D hardware acceleration:
- Click on the
Windows Start button and select Run...
- In the dialog box
that comes up, type in DxDiag.
- If Windows says
that it cannot find DxDiag, you probably do not
have DirectX installed. You will need to download
and install DirectX from www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp.
- In the dialog box
that comes up, first look at the "System
Information" section. Near the bottom it
should indicate what version of DirectX you are
currently running. Verify that this is at least
7.0. If not, download and install the latest
DirectX from www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp.
- Next click on the Display
tab. In the Device section in the upper
left of the Display page, it should indicate both
the name and manufacturer of your video card.
Make a note of both.
- Now take a look at
the section DirectX Features further down
in this dialog. Make sure that both
"DirectDraw Acceleration" and
"Direct3D Acceleration" are Enabled.
If they are not enabled, press the Enable
button for both. If you cannot enable Direct3D
acceleration, then your video card probably does
not support 3D hardware acceleration and you will
only be able to use CyberNet Worlds in software
rendering mode.
- Finally, try
pressing the "Test Direct3D" button and
run through the simple tests, making sure they
all complete successfully.
Another common way to
find out what type of video card you have is by clicking
the Windows Start button, selecting Settings,
then Control Panel. Select the Display
control panel application. In the dialog that comes up,
click on the Settings tab. If there is a button in
this dialog called Advanced..., click that. The
dialog that comes up from there should indicate your
video card model.
If you completed the
above steps without any problems, the next thing to do is
to locate the web site for your video card manufacturer.
Below we provide links to some of the more popular video
card manufacturer's web sites:
- Nvidia - TNT, Vanta, Quadro,
GeForce cards
- 3dfx - Voodoo cards (note
that the company 3dfx, Inc. is out of business
and no longer provides any support for Voodoo
cards. This link is to a third party site that
has some Voodoo driver downloads.)
- ATI Technologies - Rage and Radeon cards
- Creative Labs - 3D Blaster cards
- Matrox - Millenium G200, G400,
G450 cards
- Intel - many common types of
"onboard" 3D hardware acceleration,
including the i740 and i810 chipsets
- Hercules - 3D Prophet cards (also
Guillemot)
- ELSA - Gladiac, Erazor, Gloria,
Synergy cards
- Diamond Multimedia - Viper, Stealth,
SpeedStar cards
- S3 Graphics - ViRGE, Trio, Savage
cards
- SiS - many different chipset
families. Note that CyberNet Worlds generally
does not work well (or at all) in 3D accelerated
mode on most SiS chipsets, even with the latest
drivers installed
A good general purpose
video driver web site is WinDrivers.com. Also see CNET.com for a beginner-friendly introduction to
the concept of drivers.
Once you have located
the web site for your video card manufacturer, you will
need to locate the drivers specific to your video card
model and operating system. Note that many cards require
different drivers depending on what version of Windows
you are using. Drivers are usually located under the
"Support" section of the web site. Look for a
link called "Drivers" or "Downloads."
Once you have located
the correct driver, in most cases it is then a simple
matter of downloading the new driver to your computer and
installing it. When you start the download, be sure to
note where on your hard disk you are downloading the file
to. Once the download is complete, locate the downloaded
file on your hard disk and double click to install. After
installing your new drivers, you usually have to reboot
your PC.
OpenGL
Some cards may require separate drivers for running in
OpenGL mode. If you are having trouble with OpenGL mode,
you can try running the GLSetup utility, which is
available for free download from www.glsetup.com.
Important
Note!
In some cases installing new drivers can cause problems
on some PCs, and even prevent some systems from running.
In particular, installing the wrong driver for
your video card can cause severe problems. If you choose
to update your video drivers, you accept full
responsibility for any problems that may result from
doing so. CyberNet Worlds is not responsible for any
problems or damages that occur as a result of installing
new drivers. If you are unsure about whether or not you
should install a particular driver on your sysyem, always
contact the video card manufacturer before proceeding!
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